mmm-yoso!!! is the blog with the Temp, Cathy, writing while the Main Guy, Kirk, is on vacation. She still writes about food. That’s why you are reading this blog, anyhow.
Hi again. Yesterday, I blogged about breakfast specials at Sam Woo, inside the 99Ranch complex. Here is a little snippet of what the lunch specials are like.
You will notice there are two sets of items- Specials #1-#55 cost $4.95 each and #56-#82 are $5.95 each. The all include rice and a bowl of the soup of the day (sometimes egg drop, sometimes hot and sour, sometimes tofu, and on this day a black bean pork soup)
Pretty much this was the best soup I have had here, in that it was unique with the salty black beans and rich pork broth. You never know what the soup will be, so I always look forward to it.
This is a combination of two dinners post, therefore more than three entrees are shown. 
#56- honey glazed walnut shrimp, always a favorite. Plump, juicy shrimp, fried in a light batter and then topped with Kewpie- a mayonnaise sauce- and served with those crispy wonderful not sticky honey glazed walnuts. The flavors go together . Really… and this stuff is addictive. The only vegetable served with this- lettuce shreds, which you will like to eat with some of the mayonnaise.
#78- spicy salted squid. Oh yes. You will see plates of this coming out of the kitchen all the time. Fresh squid, batter fried with the spicy salt in the batter. The squid is scored and so it curls into tubes when it is fried, making it easy to hold and eat with chopsticks. Not too hot/spicy- that comes from the only vegetable on the plate; the chili peppers and green onion tops. Still, it isn’t a bad spice or heat. It is very light.
This is #5- shrimp with black bean sauce. Usually we get the rock cod fillet with black bean sauce, but the main thing I like is the black bean sauce. Spicy, salty, onions and green peppers compliment the flavors and you can still taste the sweetness of the shrimp.
#77 spicy salted oyster. Oh my, yes. There are only four oysters on this plate. They were obviously farmed in Chernobyl. Same light salt batter and those chilis on top, along with some more lettuce. Excellent flavor.
I saw some jarred oysters inside 99Ranch across the hall that were this size, so am pretty certain of the source for this dish (you know, after being shucked in Chernobyl). The Mister likes clams, and I like oysters so this dish is pretty much only mine to eat. He will eat maybe half of one oyster, as he does enjoy the salty crispiness of the crust. heh heh…the rest are mine….
Ah, #61- scallop with XO sauce. Oh. XO. Yes.
XO sauce is quite unique. It has dried scallops, dried shrimp, dried red chiles and various other spices. Most people make their own. It is unique, spicy in a good way, kind of crunchy because of the dried small pieces of seafood and…wow…I love XO sauce. Sometimes, we order #55- fresh mushrooms with XO. A whole plate of various mushrooms slathered in XO..and, oh, it’s a vegetable! As you can see, this dish is served with onions and green peppers as well as a lot of thin sliced scallops.
Here is a photo of #11- the rock cod fillet with black bean sauce. After a bunch had been taken off the plate. The rock cod is thin and juicy and the sauce is, again, the same one as witht eh shrim. above -and I crave it. Red and green bell peppers compliment this dish in a nice way. Crunchy and refreshing, to go with the saltiness of the beans.
We usually only get hot tea when we eat here (no charge at lunch, but 30¢ for a pot at breakfast…I dunno) but one day, I had a craving (they sell more of the iced/boba drinks via the attached ‘To Go’ Sam Woo steam tray area attached to the restaurant, but store the ingredients in the glass doored refrigerators where I could see them from where we were sitting) and asked for a red and green bean iced concoction-no boba ($2) sweet red beans and sweet green (yellow) beans, ice, sweetened condensed milk and a cherry. Very nice.
If you are shopping at 99Ranch anyhow and hunger strikes, this is a great place to stop and eat. We have tried just about every item on the lunch menu, and do like the beef and chicken and pork as well as tofu dishes, as well as the deep fried whole fish and the vegetable only dishes (sometimes we get a whole veggie plate because we know there basically aren’t any vegetables with what we ordered, as we always order three plates anyhow..but they usually only give us two bowls of soup, since there are only the two of us eating). I only blogged these most recent meals.
Sam Woo BBQ 7330 Clairmont Mesa Blvd, inside the 99 Ranch mall. Lunch Specials 11 a.m.-4 p.m., 7 days.